Chapter 9:

Where Few Dare to Walk

An American Survivalist in Tokyo


Jacob wasn't sure if he was relieved or annoyed by the fact that the final exams seemed to be the same level of difficulty that the midterms were. Sure, on one hand, he had done all that studying and worrying for nothing, but on the other hand, he had done all that studying and worrying for nothing.

By Friday, the 21st of July, the day the exams came to an end, the collective exhaustion and relief permeating through Kameda High was thick enough to cut with a knife. One particularly defiant boy from 1-3 expressed his feelings by dumping his books into a nearby trash can with a triumphant shout before returning a few minutes later in a panic, apparently having just been told that he'll be needing those books for the other two semesters.

Jacob would have to wait a bit before heading to 2-7, however, having been saddled with cleaning duty today, which wasn't the worst thing ever, usually, but time was ticking to the Shodou Performance Koshien in just over a week. And so, Jacob hurriedly dusted every surface of the classroom with the extendable duster while Yoshikawa wiped the windows down, and Maruyama zipped up and down the aisles with the pushbroom, triumphantly shouting the lyrics to a J-Rock song that none of the others were familiar with as he did so, shoving the dirt piles into the dustpan held by a less-than-enthused 'gyaru' chick named Koyama...something, Jacob couldn't remember. She was just Yuuko, but with a gaudy fake tan and none of the depth, and he took pleasure in the fact that she looked like she'd rather be literally anywhere else than scooping up dirt, squatting down on the floor.

"So, hey, just 8 days left until the competition, huh?" Yoshikawa directed towards Jacob, idly wiping down the window he was at. "You guys ready for it?"

"We're gettin' there," Jacob replied, brushing off the left doorframe, "Just gotta polish up some of our steps, an' we'll have this competition in the bag!"

"Hell yeah! Kick some ass up on that stage, or however it works!" Maruyama pumped his fist. He may be a bit of a meat-head, but at least 'competition' was a concept he could understand.

"Well, I wish you and your team good luck, Young-san," Yoshikawa said, dramatically brushing his swoopy hair out from in front of his eyes before moving on the next window, "Our band only got Silver at the prefectural competition, so we're basically out of the running until next year."

"Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting you're in the wind band...thing," Jacob said, slapping his duster on the edges of the trash can to deposit the dust, "What's that thing you play called again?" Yoshikawa chuckled. "It's called an oboe. Just remember, you add an 'n' and then you've gotta respect the dead and chow down on some spam musubi."

"Eugh," Jacob groaned, "That's right. I think you said the exact same thing last time, too. That bit about the spam must be throwin' me off or something--how the hell is spam considered a delicacy? It's disgusting! I lived on that shit for 13 years, somehow, and I get sick every time I think about it."

"Maybe that's why, bro!" Maruyama said, "You, like, ate more than you were ever supposed to, and now your body's immune to it, or something?"

"Ugh, could we hurry this up?" the girl named Koyama moaned impatiently, drumming her excessively long-nailed fingers on the nearest desk, "Some of us have lives, with places to be, y'know!"

"Keep your fake tan on, kid," Jacob growled as he moved to return the duster to the utility crate at the rear of the classroom, "Mindless shopping with your airhead friends hardly constitutes as 'a life.' You'll live." He dusted off his hands. "Well, Yoshikawa, Maruyama, she's your problem now. I'm headin' up."

The guys bade farewell while Koyama huffed at being called a 'problem,' and as he ascended the stairs to the second floor, Jacob began to feel some of that nervous tension from the upcoming competition, looming ever larger as the date approached. But challenges like this were made to be overcome, and even though the Shodou Performance Koshien might be rather silly in the grand scheme of things, he looked forward to conquering it all the same.

***

Over the course of the following hour and a half, it was plain to see that the Calligraphy Club had very much become a well-oiled machine, each member executing their steps with surprising precision. It was almost like clockwork, save for the fact that most of the mistakes being made were on Chinatsu's part, which was unusual.

"Is there something on your mind, Chinatsu?" Emi asked, concerned for her club president, "You seem distracted, or dazed, or..."

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm alright," Chinatsu stammered awkwardly before putting on her usual carefree expression, "Just tired from the finals, y'know? Boy, am I glad those are over!"

"Perhaps we should call it a day early, then," Shinji-kun suggested, lifting his legs behind him in an alternating pattern to stretch the joints, "I'm feeling a bit fatigued, myself. It would be imprudent to overwork ourselves now, so close to the competition, wouldn't you say?"

"I agree," Haruka exhaled, "I'm beat. I promised Dad I'd make dinner tonight, too. It wouldn't be good if I fainted right on the stovetop, right, Yangu-san?"

"Yeah, that'd definitely be a shitty way to end the day," Jacob concurred, "Alright, folks, we're callin' it early. I'm the adult here, and I say take it easy tonight. If you're worried about practicin', we've got this in the bag. Just do whatcha did today, and we'll be sittin' pretty for the competition...well, in Peanuts' case, once she's feelin' better, she should be up to scratch, too, right?"

"Right," she replied, with little of her usual enthusiasm, which Jacob found somewhat worrying, but he decided to chalk it up to post-finals fatigue. Hell, a week-long gauntlet of tests would tire anybody out. Even he found it difficult to dedicate much thought or focus to anything at the moment, his brain screaming in protest at the thought of thought.

Sure enough, as the week rolled by, with students anxiously awaiting their finals results and teachers setting a moderately troubling amount of summer homework, the Calligraphy Club's practice sessions continued to show great promise. Chinatsu still made a misstep here and there, but she was definitely performing better than she had on Friday. Still, Jacob had never expected their illustrious club president to end up being the weak link, when she was usually completely in her element here. Strange...

With indecent haste, the last day of the first semester, Friday, July 28th, had arrived. Finals results today, the Shodou Performance Koshien tomorrow--Yuuko was about ready to explode from the stress, with Haruka looking rather combustible as well. The Calligraphy Club had opted to meet at 6:30am, pretty damn early in the morning, for once, since they'd all be needing to get an early sleep tonight, and thus the normal club hours should be spent getting packed and ready.

"The Shodou Performance Koshien officially begins at 10 AM tomorrow morning," Emi said, staving off the urge to yawn in the early morning humidity as Jacob and Chinatsu jogged in place while the others wiped the crusts from their eyes, "But most of the first hour will be spent on an opening ceremony and other kinds of pageantry. Starting at 11 AM, they'll be doing the team competitions--that's us--so we'll need to be at Shikochu Hall by 10:30 at the absolute latest." She then produced a small brown envelope from her bag. "These are our plane tickets, which I'll be handing out tomorrow. We'll be leaving from Haneda Airport at 7 o'clock sharp on the first flight of the morning, so make sure you get to the airport by 6:30. The flight should last about an hour and a half. As for the next step, Young-san?"

"Alright, kids," Jacob announced as he continued jogging in place, "The plane'll be taking us to a city called Kochi, so I've already arranged a rental at the place right next to the airport. Nippon Rent-a-Car's the name of the place. Says he's got a nice gray van for us to use for the day, an' drivin' from Kochi to, sheesh, Shikoku...chuuou? What a freakin' mouthful. Anyway, the drive'll also be about an hour an' a half, so if we're quick, we'll make it with half an hour to spare. Now, I believe Cream-Puff's got somethin' for us, too."

Yuuko had, indeed, been carrying a rather large navy-blue gym bag when she arrived that morning. "My dad knows a guy who works in clothing rentals, and he's had these sitting in the back of his store for years now..." She zipped the bag open and began doling out large, clear bags that held traditional black and white clothes within. Jacob and Chinatsu ceased their makeshift exercise routine to get a closer look. Plain white kimono with black unamori hakama were contained inside each bag, name tags visible on top. "Yamato-san said they haven't sold in nearly 12 years, so he'd already written them off as a loss years ago, so he was more than happy to sell them to Dad for 500 yen each."

"500 yen?!" Shinji-kun was aghast, holding the hakama bag that bore his name as his Kanji earring dangled wildly, "But...but look at the craftsmanship on it!"

"Maybe we should give your father's friend some free advertising to show our gratitude," Haruka suggested, "I feel like we'd be taking advantage otherwise..."

Fortunately for the group at large, they had already practiced their steps while wearing hakama, courtesy of of Jacob's neighbor, Chisato-san, but those had once belonged to her husband and daughter, so there was no way in hell he was gonna allow those to get dirty and ruined. Also, there were only two of them. And they didn't match.

"These should be more comfortable than our testing hakama, too," Yuuko said, "Since they'll be the appropriate size for us." Then she itched the back of her head. "I have to wonder, though, why haven't they sold for so long? There's nothing wrong with them..."

"Hey, I'm not questionin' it," Jacob said with a grin as he set his own bag down flat in the corner of 2-7. "We didn't have to get garbage rentals on the school's stingy budget, so I'm just rollin' with it."

"Shall we get some practice in, while we're here?" Emi asked, approaching the old stereo sitting on the shelf.

"Y-Yeah," Chinatsu said with a nervous smile, "Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Ugh," Yuuko grumbled as she deposited her own hakama back in her gym bag, "I can't wait for the competition to be over, so I'll finally be free from this song."

"Oh, it hasn't grown on you, Yuuko-san?" Shinji-kun commented with a serene expression, "I've become rather fond of the song's lively pace and fearless tone. It makes one want to live their life more fully, wouldn't you agree?"

And so, much to the chagrin of the Paranormal Research Club, which was currently meeting one floor below, in the unused Room 1-7, the halls of Kameda High rumbled with the sounds of Motorhead's devil-may-care anthem for the last time.

***

"2nd overall again, Shinji-kun?" Jacob asked, impressed, as the Calligraphy Club reconvened briefly in Room 2-7 at the end of the day. Largely to collect their hakama, but sharing their finals results was no doubt a big incentive, too. "I dunno who that Junko chick is, but she must be some real tough competition!"

"Isn't she your class's Vice-President?" Shinji-kun asked.

Jacob thought for a second, rubbing his chin with his left hand. "Huh. You might be right. Well, anyway, I did much better this time around--29th overall, up from 40th or something last time!"

Chinatsu shrugged with a casual smile, "Eh, I got 18th this time, 16th last time. About the same, all things considered. Oh, but Yuu-chan did much better this time around!"

"Don't tell them, Chi-chan!" Yuuko cried out, but she was too late. Her tanned friend was already on a tear.

"She got 58th last time, but now she's all the way up at 32nd! That's a huge jump!" Chinatsu said, with a level of enthusiasm Jacob realized he hasn't seen from her in a couple weeks.

As Yuuko despaired at the rest of the club knowing she wasn't intellectually on their level, Haruka chimed in, "I got 3rd overall again." She blushed slightly. "I was kinda hoping I'd get one of the top spots this time, but 3rd is still really good."

Emi patted her on the shoulder, also looking quite satisfied with herself. "That's right, Haruka-san. 3rd overall is a very good place to be. I should know--I've placed 3rd overall, as well!"

"That's incredible!" Shinji-kun exclaimed, clapping for her almost like it was instinct.

"Who'd you beat?" Chinatsu asked, likewise impressed, her own hands clapped together in anticipation.

Emi was vividly red now. "It turns out," she said sheepishly, "It was our Student Council President, Horii-san."

"Damn, girl!" Jacob said, "From what I hear about that Fujiko chick, that bar was set pretty high. Way to go!"

"So all of us either did better or did about the same," Chinatsu said with a confident swagger, "Good job, everyone! Now, let's take that winning attitude with us to the competition tomorrow!"

"Yeah, so let's stop yappin' and get our asses home," Jacob added, "We got an early start tomorrow. Remember: We all gotta be at the Haneda Airport at 6:30 at the latest. If you're in doubt, set out a few minutes early. Get yourselves a good meal and an early sleep tonight."

"You heard the man!" Chinatsu called out, a slight tremor in her voice, "This final official club meeting is now adjourned. Dismissed!"

One by one, the club members exited 2-7, leaving Kameda High behind until the early days of September. Jacob was the last to leave, as he was taking his sweet, sweet time. He already had everything prepared for tomorrow, so he could afford to relax. Save his energy for the competition, and whatnot. But after switching out his shoes for the last time this semester, Jacob's march across the campus was interrupted by Principal Katou, who had apparently been waiting for him to emerge.

"What the--" Jacob made a motion to grab the old man and fling him to the ground, but was able to stop himself short before making contact. "What the hell're you doin', sneakin' up on me like that, old man?!"

"Got you pretty good, didn't I, Yangu-san?" the old principal chuckled, forcing Jacob's face into an expression of flat annoyance.

"...Yeah, you kinda did," he muttered, "Guess I'm not as alert as I used to be." He sighed, then turned to face the salt-and-pepper-haired old man expectantly. "Well, anyway, I'm guessing you didn't shamble out here just to play a prank."

"Well, you're mostly right..." Katou chuckled. "My main reason for coming out here is to congratulate you."

"Oh?"

"Indeed. Ranked 29th out of 142 students on your final exams, I hear. Not exceptional, but not bad, either. Certainly far better than I had expected, considering our considerable admission requirements."

Now it was Jacob's turn to laugh. "Damn right, old man! I may just be a country bumpkin, but I ain't just any ol' country bumpkin!"

It was odd. There wasn't a trace of condescension in Katou's expression--rather, he seemed pleased. "My dear friend, Fuyutsuki-san, told me of your having dropped out of high school back in your home country, and we had assumed it was simply because you, as the kids might say, couldn't hack it. His whole idea was to enroll you into my school to humiliate you for a bit before sending you off to some backwater night school when you inevitably failed out." Katou stuck his hands behind his back, standing up a little straighter. "I have to laugh, thinking about how wrong we were about you back then, Yangu-san!"

"Tell ya what, though, now that I'm here..." Jacob said, sweeping his gaze around the campus, "Gettin' my G.E.D. in some depressing little toilet sounds like it'd be a livin' hell."

"And so it would," Katou agreed, "But you're exceeding our expectations, the students seem to like you, er, generally-speaking, and you've been a good influence on young Hayakawa-san, we've noticed." He took a few steps forward and patted Jacob on the arm. "We'd be making a big mistake, throwing you out after all that!"

Jacob shrugged. "Welp, 1 semester down, 8 more to go. Just gotta keep up the good work, right?"

"Absolutely," Katou said, a satisfied smile on his turtle face, before giving him a small bow, "Well, good day to you, Yangu-san. And good luck to you all on your competition tomorrow."

"Heh," Jacob turned his back on the principal, a wide grin on his face, "As good as we are, we don't need no luck!" And as he walked away, he lifted his hand and waved to the old man behind him. Katou, pleased with the progress of his little experiment, dropped his hands back to his side before straightening his shirt and made his way back into the faculty building, some end-of-semester matters still remaining for him to attend to.

***

It was finally here. The day of the Shodou Performance Koshien. The Kameda High Calligraphy Club had all assembled in the main foyer of Haneda Airport around 6:27am, faces lined with a combination of determination and early morning drowsiness. Haruka and Shinji-kun marvelled at the airport's slanted ceiling and myriad of oval windows that were already illuminating the place with brightening morning light, before Emi handed out their plane tickets, which bore their flight and gate numbers.

"If you didn't have any breakfast yet," Emi said with authority, "You have time to grab something quick now, or you can buy a snack to eat on the way later, but the point is, you must have something to eat before the competition!"

Chinatsu and Shinji-kun were the only ones who had skipped breakfast, it seemed, so once the group reached their assigned gate, the two of them headed for a nearby airport storefront and picked up some breakfast bento boxes.

"Rmph, it's not great," Chinatsu said, somewhat muffled by her mouth being filled to bursting, "But it'll do." Worryingly, Jacob caught her several times wearing a vacant expression, complete with thousand-yard stare, appearing as though she were a prisoner facing the electric chair. The pre-show nerves were bad with this one.

"Nervous, Peanuts?"

She smiled weakly and choked out a croaking sound that vaguely resembled a "Yes."

"Eh, don't be," Jacob said "It's not like we're gonna die or anything. Unless the crowd hates us so much they rip us apart like George Romero zombies."

Chinatsu squirmed, a low moan emanating from her throat.

Moments later, the Calligraphy Club and other fellow passengers were ushered onto the plane, its striking blue band starkly contrasting the mostly-white fuselage, practically glowing with otherworldly radiance in the morning sun. They took their seats near the middle, Yuuko guiding Chinatsu into a seat next to her, Shinji-kun and Emi settled in across from them, leaving Jacob to sit in front of the former pair alongside Haruka, who enthusiastically chose the window seat.

Now that the weariness was being shaken off, the middle of the plane was buzzing with excited whispered conversation as the mountainous greenery of Honshu passed by below them. Haruka was eagerly pointing out which mountains she'd like to go hiking on someday, and Jacob was all about it.

"I wouldn't do that mountain, though," he said, "Those ridges would be too steep for good hiking, I think. But see those hills down below it? That's some ideal hiking ground, right there."

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean," Haruka replied, "It's hard to tell these things from all the way up here. I wonder if there are any trails there..."

Roughly an hour into the flight, some coastal cities began to appear. A few minutes' voyage over the open ocean was then followed up by the emergence of Shikoku, a sign that their flight was coming to its conclusion.

"We're nearly halfway there, everyone!" Emi said in a suppressed voice, riding the line between a shout and a whisper. For various reasons, everyone became quite restless in their restrictive seats, hardly able to wait for this leg of the journey to be over.

Around 8:25am, the flight landed at Kochi Ryoma Airport, which by all rights wasn't quite the visual marvel Haneda was, but it was no slouch, either. Once they were able to disembark, Jacob and the others entered the extremely brightly-lit interior, with Yuuko feeling compelled to double-check that they were actually inside the building and not still outside. Shinji-kun and Haruka were charmed by the wood-finished paneling on many of the shops and installations, but Jacob led them straight to the car rental desk. Which was also wood-finished.

"Hey, hey, we're here to pick up a rental ordered ahead o' time," Jacob said to the thin man with pouchy eyes behind the counter, whose name tag identified him as Oe. "Should be a van under 'Jacob Young' from Ota City, booked for today only."

"Ah, yes, Young-san," the man named Oe said, clearly comfortable with foreign names, "I've got your order right here. Do you have any--" Jacob was already holding up his Japanese resident ID in anticipation. "Ah, so you do. Right this way, then."

Oe got out of his seat and led the group out through the glass doors and into the parking lot, where a rather boxy but immaculately-polished domestic gray van awaited. With information exchanged, agreement signed, and keys handed over, it was time to usher everyone and their luggage into their monochrome chariot.

"Alright, Peanuts, you're up front with me, since you look like you need some room to breathe," Jacob proclaimed with a nod, hands on hips. "Otherwise, it's every man for himself, or every lady for herself, or...something. Anyway, let's roll!"

A brief flurry of activity in the cabin, the roar of the engine coming to life, and the distinct beep-boop of a mobile GPS activating, and then they were off, to spend the next hour and some change on a guided track through the gentle rolling hills of Shikoku.

***

9:42am. It's a good thing the road from Kochi to Shikokuchuuou was relatively lacking in police coverage, because a certain gray van was hauling some serious ass in order to arrive in such good time. Yuuko was still gripping the sides of her seat for dear life, teeth chattering.

"Do, um, do you always drive with such enthusiasm, Jay-kun?" Shinji-kun asked, hands shaking slightly as Jacob undid his seatbelt and turned the GPS off.

"Oh, pffft, that was nothin'," he replied, "Had to slow it down a bit, with you kids inside. I didn't even break 90 once! Er, 90 miles per hour, that is. I guess that'd be something like 140 kilometers an hour. Either way, we're here, safe and sound!"

Shikochu Hall from the outside rode the line between stylish and plain, though the octagonal water curtain...thing in the fountains outside were a neat aesthetic touch. Perhaps 'plain' wasn't the right word--"I'd go with 'stately,' personally," Shinji-kun commented, "There's enough grandeur to reveal its true nature as a bastion of art and beauty, yet the architects were restrained enough to allow for greater marvels to reveal themselves on the inside."

"Hm, if you say so," Jacob concluded, not really much of a fan of the sharp and angular modern design. "I'm more interested in whether the stage is as impressive as the pictures were."

With assistance from the Hall's staff, the Kameda High Calligraphy Club were ushered backstage, where the other schools and teams they were to compete against were stationed. Chinatsu was handed a banner that bore Kameda High's full official name upon it, and she seemed to be clinging to it as though it were a life preserver in the raging seas. There were about 26 or 27 teams in total, and Yuuko, Shinji-kun, Haruka, and Emi were engaged in pointing out teams from prominent high schools or who were traditionally strong contenders in the competition.

A staff member entered the prep chamber--a middle-aged woman in a fine navy blue dress suit--and greeted the teams that were present. "While our opening ceremony is being conducted," she stated in a clear, crisp voice, "Please use our facilities to change into the clothes you will be wearing during your performance. We would also like to ask for a representative from each team to report to the supply room, down this hallway and to the left..." She indicated towards the nearby doorway. "...so that we can allocate and retrieve the materials you will need for your performance..."

A quiet, muffled chaos consumed the chamber over the course of the following 20 or so minutes, as streams of students and performers entered the changing rooms in modern attire and exited in a cornucopia of colorful kimono and hakama. If Jacob hadn't known where he was and what he was here for, it would've been confusing and ominous as hell.

Mostly reunited and changed, the Kameda High Calligraphy Club in their white kimono and black hakama seemed rather muted in comparison to their surroundings, but Yuuko puffed out her chest and huffed. "I bet they're all just trying to score some cheap points with flashy colors!" she declared to the others present, "But all we need is our plan. Precise and bold, active and fearless, our performance will speak for itself without the need for...whatever that thing is!" Her gaze landed on a rather plain girl several yards away, decked out in a kimono-hakama combination that Jacob would only be able to describe as 'psychedelic technicolor vomit.'

A few minutes later, Emi rejoined the group. "Alright, I've got us all set up with the staff," she said, slightly out of breath. "There are 28 teams performing today, and we're lucky number 11 on that list, meaning we'll probably be up in a little over an hour. Is everyone ready?"

"Hell yeah, I'm ready!" Jacob cheered in his best 'inside' voice, pumping his fist.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Shinji-kun stated, exhaling a nervous breath before regaining his composure.

"Absolutely," Haruka said with confidence, "Compared to the nonstop fear I lived with just a few months ago, this fear I'm feeling right now is nothing!"

"Well said, Haru-chan!" Yuuko replied, "I worked so hard to get this far. We all know our parts, and we've practiced them so many times. We just need to do it one more time, guys!"

"By the way, has anyone seen Chinatsu-san?" Shinji-kun interjected, casting his gaze about. A palpable panic manifested in the air surrounding the Kameda High Calligraphy Club. "A-Anyone...?"

"Sh-She was with us in the changing room..." Emi said, trying to keep her voice level and calm, also turning to every corner of the chamber, hoping to see those telltale blue-dyed bangs of hers.

"Everyone fan out and search," Jacob said with authoritative urgency. "Except you, Haruka," he added pointedly, "You stay here with the banner in case she shows up. Let's meet back up in 15, alright?"

With that, the search began. Jacob scoured the prep chamber high and low, scaring many of the other performers with his intense staring and gruff demeanor, but when the allotted time expired, he returned to Haruka and the class banner in defeat, shortly followed by the return of Emi, Shinji-kun, and Yuuko.

"Anything?" Haruka asked timidly.

"Nothing in the changing room," Yuuko said with a sad sigh, "No one there's seen her."

"No luck in the supplies room, either," Shinji-kun said dejectedly.

"I went around the halls asking faculty," Emi said, her voice quivering slightly, "None of the staff have seen her. Where could she have gone...?"

"And she wasn't anywhere out here," Jacob said, curling his hands into fists. He turned to face the rear exit behind them. "Peanuts..." he growled softly, growing consumed with the accumulated worry that had been brewing for the past few weeks, "Where in the hell did you run off to...?"

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